Yet again my family and I went to France: this year, the village of Houlbec-Cocherel in Normandy. It's in the middle of nowhere in the Eure valley, but conveniently close to Paris and Versailles.

Paris being one of the most photographed places in the world, I didn't think it was worthwhile to take my camera. Versailles was full of tourists taking photos, so I concentrated on the tourists rather than the architecture or the art. I had my long lens and tried to get some 'candid' shots, but I fear my inexperience at photographing people shows. This is something I hope to practise.

Houlbec-Cocherel is also very close to Giverny, where Monet spent his later years going blind and painting water lilies. His house still stands, and houses a museum (which I didn't get to see). The gardens are beautifully kept, but like Versailles the view is somewhat spoilt by the crowds. All the same, I managed to get one or two shots that I think show the Impressionist spirit without having to go blind.

There's the usual pictures of the family too, but unusually I didn't manage to sneak in one of myself. Usually the karting day provides a good opportunity for that, but we didn't find anywhere to kart this year.

I don't take pictures of myself often, because I'm not that much of a poser. But I am a little bit of a poser, and I've had my hair cut for the first time in seven years, so I felt the need to take these out in the Spring sunshine. While I was out I got one or two of the 'iron tree' erected at the building works round the corner.

I've created this in reply to a post on FlipC's blog.

In Honfleur, near the waterfront, there is a tropical butterfly house. It claims to have the largest collection of live butterflies in France, maybe in Europe, and for a few measly euros you can join the mostly families in there chasing around after the creatures which are so tantalisingly beautiful but don't like to stay still long enough to photograph. The people with cheapo compacts, with glacially slow shutter lag, go home disappointed, but continuous-mode shooting and my macro lens allowed me to pick up some striking pictures.

This year my family went to Honfleur, Normandy. As you can see, we did a bit of karting and some crazy golf. We also went to the beach a lot - the weather was glorious - but I didn't photograph that: for a start, I'm afraid of getting sand in my camera, and also, walking around a beach with a serious camera is likely to get one into trouble.